Who better seen than I in shepherd's arts,
To please the lads, and win the lasses' hearts?
How deftly to mine oaten reed so sweet,
Wont they, upon the green, to shift their feet :
And, wearied in the dance, how would they yearn
Some well devised tale from me to learn !
For many a song, and tale of mirth, had I
To chase the loit'ring sun adown the sky.
But ah! since Lucy, coy, deep wrought her spight
Within my heart, unmindful of delight,
The jolly youths I fly: and all alone

Deprecation To rocks and woods pour forth my fruitless moan,
Oh! leave thy cruelty, relentless Fair,
Complaint. E'er lingering long, I perish through despair.
Had Rosalind been mistress of my mind,
Tho' not so fair, she would have prov'd more kind.

Advice. O think, unwitting maid! while yet 'tis time, How flying years impair the youthful prime! Thy virgin bloom will not for ever stay, And flow'rs, tho' left ungather'd, will decay, The flow'rs, anew, returning seasons bring;

But faded beauty has no second Spring.

Defpair.

(1) My words are wind! She, deaf to all my cries,

[A. Philips.]

Antiquity.

Difapprobation.

'Takes pleasure in the mischief of her eyes.

XIV.

REMONSTRANCE.

Part of Socrates' speech to Montaigne, in the French DIALOGUES
OF THE DEAD. (Pens. Ing. Anc. Mod. p. 117.)

ANTIQUITY is an

object of a peculiar sort :

Distance magnifies it. If you had been personally acquainted with Aristotle, Phocion, and me; you would have found nothing in us very different from what you may find in people of your own age. What commonly prejudices us in favour of antiquity, is that we are prejudiced against our own times. We raise the ancients, that we may depress the moderns. When we ancients

(1) A long paufe.

were alive, we esteemed our ancestors more than they deserved. And our posterity esteem us more than we deserve. But the very truth of the matter is, our ancestors, and we, and our posterity, are all very much alike.

XV.

AUTHORITY AND FORBIDDING.

Jupiter forbids the Gods and Goddesses taking any part in the contention between the Greeks and Trojans.

AURORA now, fair daughter of the dawn, Narration.

Awe.

Sprinkled with rosy light the dewy lawn;
When Jove conven'd the senate of the skies,
Where high Olympus' cloudy tops arise,
The Sire of gods his awful silence broke;
The heavens, attentive, trembled as he spoke !
"Celestial states! immortal gods! give ear; (1) Authority.
Hear our decree; and rev'rence what ye hear;
The fix'd decree, which not all heaven can move;
Thou, Fate! fulfil it; and ye, Powers, approve.
(2) What god shall enter yon forbidden field,
Who yields assistance, or but wills to yield.
Back to skies with shame he shall be driven,
Gash'd with dishonest wounds, the scorn of heaven.
(3) Or from our sacred hill, with fury thrown,

(1) There are three pretty long pauses to be made in this line, at the words, ftates, gods, and ear. The words, Celestial states! may be spoken with the right arm extended, the palm upwards, and the look directed toward the right, as addreffing that part of the affembly. The words immortal gods! with the left arın extended, in the fame manner, (the right continuing likewise extended) and the look directed toward the left hand part of the affembly. And the words, give ear, with the look bent directly forward. See Authority, page 22.

(2) At the words, What god shall enter, the left arm, which should continue extended, with the right, to the beginuing of this fourth line of the speech, may be drawn in, and placed upon the hip, while the right is brandished with the clenched fift, as in threatening. See Boasting, page 22.

(3) The speaker will naturally here point downward with the fore-finger of his right hand.

Threatening.

Deep, in the dark Tartarian gulph, shall groan; With burning chains fix'd to the brazen floors, And lock'd by hell's inexorable doors ; As deep beneath th' infernal centre hurl'd, As from that centre to th' æthereal world. (1) Let each, submissive, dread those dire abodes, Nor tempt the vengeance of the God of gods. Challeng- League all your forces, then, ye pow'rs above; ing. Your strength unite against the might of Jove. Let down our golden everlasting chain, Whose strong embrace holds heaven, and earth,

ing.

and main.

Strive all of mortal and immortal birth, *Contempt To drag by this the Thunderer down to earth, +Challeng- (2) Ye* strive in vain, if I † but stretch this hand, I heave the gods, the ocean, and the land. I fix the chain to great Olympus' height, And the vast world hangs trembling in my sight. For such I reign unbounded, and above;

Admiration

And such are men and gods, compar'd to Jove.

XVI.

SUBLIME DESCRIPTION.

An ODE, from the xixth Pfalm.

I.

THE lofty pillars of the sky,

(Spect. No. 465.)

And spacious concave rais'd on high,
Spangled with stars, a shining frame,
Their great original proclaim.
Th' unwearied sun, from day to day,
Pours knowledge on his golden ray,

(1) "Let each," &c. The speaker may here again extend both arms as before, the open palms upwards, cafting a look over the whole room, suppose to be filled with the gods.

(2) The fpeaker will do well here, to have his arms in any other posture rather than extended; because, after the pause in the middle of the line, the right arm must be extended with great folemnity.

And publishes to ev'ry land
The work of an Almighty hand.

II.

Soon as the ev'ning shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wond'rous tale,
And nightly to the list'ning earth

Repeats the story of her birth;

Whilst all the stars, that round her burn,
And all the planets, in their turn,

Confirm the tidings, as they roll,

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

Veneration

Admiration

The fight about Patrocles' body, broke off by Achilles' appearing on the rampart, unarmed, and calling aloud.

Hom. II. xviii. v. 241.)

THE hero rose,

(Pope's

Her Ægis Pallas o'er his shoulder throws ;
Around his brows a golden cloud she spread;
A stream of glory flam'd above his head;
As when from some beleagur'd town arise,
The smokes high-curling to the shaded skies,
(Seen from some island, o'er the main, afar,
When men, distrest, hang out the sign of war)
With long projected beams the seas are bright,
And heaven's wide arch reflects the ruddy light;
So from Achilles head the splendors rise,

H

Admiration Terror.

Reflecting blaze on blaze against the skies.
Forth march'd the chief, and distant from the

crowd,

High on the rampart (1) rais'd his voice aloud.
With her own shout Minerva swells the sound!
Troy starts astonish'd, and the shores rebound.
As the loud trumpet's brazen mouth from far,
With shrilling clangor sounds th' alarm of war,

Trepidation So high his dreadful voice the hero rear'd;

Terror.

(2) Hosts dropp'd their arms, and trembled as they
heard;

And back the chariots roll, and coursers bound,
And steeds and men lie mingled on the ground.
Aghast they see the living lightning play,
And turn their eyeballs from the flashing ray.
Thrice from the trench his brazen voice he rais'd,
And thrice they fled confounded and amaz'd.
Twelve in the tumult wedg'd, untimely rush'd
On their own spears, by their own chariots crush'd:
While, shielded from the darts, the Greeks obtain
The long disputed carcase of the slain.

XVIII.

COMPLAINT.

Humorous petition of a French gentleman to the king, who had given him a title, to which his income was not equal, by reafon of the weight of the taxes levied from his eftate. (Pens.

Ing. Anc. Mod. p. 428.)

[After acknowledging the honour done him by the king's conferring on him a title, he goes on as follows.]

Complain- YOUR Majesty has only made me more unhappy by giving me a title. For there is nothing more pitiable than a gentleman loaded with a Vexation. knapsack. This empty sound, which I was such